I do understand where you're coming from. But most of those examples are diddy little things, Swarm and Krake in particular. If the new Chessington winger is a B&M as part of a wider deal, it's tiny, ill thought out and depressingly woeful in terms of capacity. It's not inconceivable for Thorpe and Towers to get B&M's over the next few years by any means.
But we're talking about 2 hypers here - in the UK - one of which being cross valley at Towers! Those are the bits that are completely unrealistic. I'd entertain discussion about a small new B&M prototype model at Towers in a few years time but a cross valley hyper? No chance on god's green earth.
And where did all this discussion come from? A planning application? A leaked document? A Merlin employee accidentally spilling the beans? No, some American geezer on the Like and Subscribe obsessed world of YouTube who's "reliable source" mate told him. I'm sure he's a jolly nice guy who's being very genuine but hardly a smoking gun is it? Especially considering the madness of what is being proposed.
I’d argue all of the rides are fairly sizeable, more so than Chessington’s. All of them are over 100ft tall, and some are even pushing 150ft in that list. I know Chessington’s B&M is a small ride, but I think multi-ride deals can sometimes have a surprising amount of scope in terms of the scales of ride that are built. Also, Merlin is building a lot of B&M at the moment; as well as Chessington’s project, they’ve announced B&Ms for many new Chinese Legolands. With each park receiving 2 B&Ms in some cases, that would surely constitute a pretty large project from B&M’s standpoint, no? (Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t B&M consider a new park to be one project?)
In terms of the source of this rumour; plenty of people reporting via this method have been right before, even when the enthusiast community said they were definitely wrong. For instance, I remember it was a YouTuber who first reported that Valhalla was going to be closed for the 2020 season. Even though everyone vilified them and said they were wrong, the closure ended up happening. There was also a Drayton predictions video that was vilified by the community, but quite a few elements of it ended up being true.
Of course, I’d personally take any rumour with a pinch of salt, and I’ll admit that I personally would have thought that there were more likely options than a cross-valley coaster, but it’s an interesting rumour to consider, don’t you think?
You mean like the London Resort was / is going to happen? Hahaha.
It also looks like Chessington are getting one of the smallest B&M's, both in terms of length and height, ever built. It's hardly going to be a ground breaking or record breaking ride is it? Not entirely convinced it's the right move for them at all tbh.
Merlin aren't going to build a hyper coaster at Towers in the valley. It's pipe dream stuff.
You never know… I’ll admit the SSSI designation is a major stumbling block that has perhaps decreased the chances of materialisation in my eyes, but I reckon there’s still a chance it could pull through and work around the designation!
What I’m trying to say is that Chessington’s ride, regardless of size, is still a B&M, which many thought inconceivable even when the plans were first released. While Chessington’s ride is not a huge B&M, most thought that B&M full stop was “too expensive” for Merlin at the time, citing Vekoma, Gerstlauer or even the likes of SBF as more likely options.
My point is more; we don’t really know what could happen. As much as I know you’re probably all sick of me saying it, I think Merlin’s CAPEX strategy could well have changed when the company went back into private ownership. I think Chessington getting a B&M after 19 years of not much certainly makes it seem like a change has happened, personally. I know the deal mentioned sounds quite radical, but Merlin could well want something radical as a way to inject money back into the parks post-COVID.
And Matt, love your detailed study on a cross valley coaster, and I would love to see one, but the parks location means they would never get planning permission, the planning/environmental lobby would never let it happen in a million years.
Swampy would be down a hole within minutes of the project being announced.
Forget the cross valley coaster!
I’ll admit I’m unsure on how likely it would be, and I’m unsure whether it would get planning consent without at very least some kind of concession from the park (getting rid of Spinball, perhaps?), but it does make me ask; if it would be so difficult to get planning permission there, why has the park masterminded projects there numerous times? (There was the 2003 proposal, but based on what we knew, it sounds as though the original SW8 proposal pre-Wicker Man may also have gone into the valley at least a bit. Not to mention that the 2010-2019 LTDP mentioned a “cross valley ride”)
I should probably stop talking, though… you guys are older, wiser and know far more about this stuff than me.
